Film

The film centres on a pair of children born within moments of India gaining independence from England.

Hamilton said the feature has been sold in 60 territories so far but he didn't know the release plan in other countries.

He hoped Canadian audiences would be the first to lay eyes on the film, which he called ambitious “in every single way.”

“It's a rich cinematic experience, there's no question about that,” said Hamilton, who also produced Mehta's Oscar-nominated
Water, Heaven on Earth and
Bollywood/Hollywood.

“Whether they like the film or not, I don't think anyone will leave the theatre feeling, ‘Oh that wasn't a cinematic experience.’ Everyone will leave knowing that they'd seen something that's quite special, unique.”

Hamilton said shooting
Midnight's Children involved more than 60 locations, featured more than 100 different roles, and boasted a wild mix of production challenges.

“We had everything happening in it — we had snakes, cobras, live cobras, we had tanks, military equipment, bombers, things blowing up, people dying, people being born,” he said of the film's myriad stunts, visual effects and plot points.

But one of the toughest days on set was a hospital scene that showed the hero's birth. Hamilton said that shoot involved more than a dozen babies less than two weeks old.

“There was no ‘Quiet on the set,“’ Hamilton said laughing.

“We could have just had the one baby in focus but to make it real, we wanted to actually have the babies there and they have to be within that two-week (age span). They change. A month-old baby doesn't look like a newborn. So we had to have them under two weeks old and so we had this holding room for the ... mothers and some of the fathers and all their babies. It was quite extraordinary, it was beautiful, actually.”